BBC East Midlands Today - New Set Monday

Right place for this? https://twitter.com/stuartthomas/status/419191880715620352/photo/1

Half the set has gone already! What will replace it? Watch @bbcemt Monday at 1830.. #emtmakeover2014 pic.twitter.com/uxFHsjwQv9

— Stuart Thomas (@stuartthomas) January 3, 2014

And about time it was done! I think it's the oldest regional set left, and those rear projection screens really did look poor even in SD.

I never thought I'd live to see the day! It's been like waiting for Lord Lucan to put in an appearance...

Elements of the current EMT set (especially the flooring) have been in place since the original generic look in 2000.

Given the recent set change in St. Helier, I live in hope that Oxford might finally get a set change soon. Now that EMT is changing, I believe that leaves Oxford as the only BBC regional set to *still* have the wood-grain effect flooring.

I wonder how much longer now until English Regions become available on BBC One HD (albeit likely to still be produced in SD and upscaled, for the forseeable future).

Oxford are getting new titles on Monday whether that means the set is changing at the same time I don't know. They have had their down the line position upgraded in recent months.

I suppose the dream would be for the BBC to, of some degree have all the regional news sets looking pretty much the same. The problem is sets change during different national revamps so you end up with a total mis-match across regions nearly all the time. The Beeb should try and address this. ITV regional news manage it OK (I know they have less studios across the UK, but still). The variation with desks doesn't help either... Some using full height and others opting for a coffee table style.

Titles are another thing all together. Look East need a refresh as they still use the old, large BBC News boxed logo pre-NBH move.

Why do / should they all look / feel the same? They're serving different audiences, and as long as the set 'says' BBC News, I don't see the problem.

The EMT studio webcam still works, so you can see what's going on with the set.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8722000/8722517.stm

This should probably be split into a new thread though.

I wonder what design they have gone for - desk or sofa? It will be interesting to see! Its been a long time since EMT had a desk - must be over 10 years.

- From https://twitter.com/stuartthomas

This may be of interest - looks like the rear projection screens are being kept unfortunately (as of the time of post anyway!):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8722000/8722517.stm

For anyone outside the region who wants to know what the set used to look like, here's highlights from Fridays edition.

I'm positively jubilant that they're *finally* swapping the woodgrain for a sheer black/grey floor.

However... I'm also disappointed that, apart from the floor, nothing else seems to be changing (yet-to-be-revealed furniture notwithstanding, possibly?) I suppose that an utter overhaul isn't really possible in just a weekend though - that'd probably require decamping for at least a week/a few days.

It's clearly going to be more a "refresh" than a revamp, with essentially the same set apart from different flooring and maybe a few other tweaks. In that sense, it's rather like what Midlands Today did in spring 2010 (which thankfully only lasted about 2 years, before a full proper set change to a more fully NBH-era style of set).

I'd dearly love it if EMT's forthcoming effort ultimately proves to be a similarly short-lived "stopgap" leading into something more akin to the likes of NWT's or Wales Today's current set a bit further down the line, but I won't be holding my breath...